How to create a device profile?

#1

Can anybody tell me how to create a device profile? Is there a tutorial for that?

I own a Philips TV which is not recognized as such by TVersity. When I set the media playback device on autodetect, it works with many video formats, but it’s not possible to fast forward the movie. When I set the media playback device on playstation 3, it does fast forward movies, but not all formats are recognized.

So I suspect that by combining some settings in the XML file, it should be possible to make a better device profile, which works finetuned on the Philips TV.

On this forum I see several people working around with XML files, apparently dealing with specific device settings. But nowhere I find how that works.

Who can give me a hint?

#2

OK, I have been studying the profiles xml and noticed some differences, between the profiles. However, I cannot find which settings in the profiles xml make fast forward possible. Or is this something which is dependent upon whether you transcode or not?

#3

Ah, found that out. So when transcoded: no fast forward. When streaming directly: fast forward.

Now, I want to improve the playstation profile in profiles.xml. Why? Because there are some video files, including mp4 and matroska, which are transcoded when I select for example the Vaio MR100 profile. But when I select the playstation profile, it doesn’t. I just cannot view it.

Apparently, there must be a few mime-types mentioned in the playstation profile, which cannot be directly streamed to the TV, but should be transcoded. If I understand correctly, I should then try to find out which mime-types should NOT be in the list. And by taking them out, TVersity will transcode them. I will then have to accept that I cannot fast forward, but at least I can view them.

Is my logic correct Mike Paul?

In that case, I will have to figure out which mime types are not compatible with my TV.

#4

[quote="laandodeman"]Apparently, there must be a few mime-types mentioned in the playstation profile, which cannot be directly streamed to the TV, but should be transcoded. If I understand correctly, I should then try to find out which mime-types should NOT be in the list. And by taking them out, TVersity will transcode them. I will then have to accept that I cannot fast forward, but at least I can view them.

Is my logic correct Mike Paul?

In that case, I will have to figure out which mime types are not compatible with my TV.[/quote]
Yep, remove anything that your player can’t handle and TVersity will TRY to transcode it for you.

And be SURE to keep a backup copy of profiles.xml elsewhere, since when you update TVersity all your work will be overwritten…

#5

Pfff, have been studying the profiles.xml for hours now, trying to copy past parts from one to the other. But no success at all.

You need to be a programmer and expert in mimetype language. Extremely frustrating. So my question still is: is there a tutorial for writing a device profile? Or perhaps, has anyone written a device profile for a philips tv 7000 series?

#6

How do you define "no success"?

If you remove all the entries in the CORRECT mimetypeList, everything should transcode. Once that happens, put back the ones that look like they should play as-is, and see if that makes them stop transcoding…

#7

Well, Mike Paul, it seems that whatever I do, I get no effect whatsoever. I probably am doing something wrong but it’s just so hard finding out what.

But I will try your suggestion, it makes sense.

Thanks for not giving up on me :D

#8

Mostly it’s copying an existing profile. It sounds like one of the profiles is in-use now: can you tell which one?

If it can play a codec, then add that codec to the mimetypeList in the in-use profile. If it can’t, remove it…

#9

[quote=“mikepaul”]Mostly it’s copying an existing profile. It sounds like one of the profiles is in-use now: can you tell which one?

If it can play a codec, then add that codec to the mimetypeList in the in-use profile. If it can’t, remove it…[/quote]

Hi Mike Paul,
Hope I understand you correctly. You say it sounds like one of the profiles is in use now. As far as I know, the only thing in use is the "detect automatically" profile in the user interface. I am not sure how to check otherwise.

Also, I don’t know what the mimetypeList is. Also don’t know how to edit the in-use profile.

Hope you can help me a bit further.

#10

There’s a file called profiles.xml in the TVersity directory. One of the profiles is being picked up automatically even if the name isn’t an exact match, due to the identification code that the player is sending out. USUALLY the Status page in TVersity says what device is being used based on the profile so you can check there to see what it says.

Part of profiles.xml is a section called mimetypeList. Mime types are Internet codes that describe codecs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_media_type explains what some of them are, but the ones TVersity uses are focused on audio and video. The mime types in each section are for the codecs that the player is expected to handle and TVersity does not transcode them; anything else not listed there gets transcoded. So once you know what part of profiles.xml is being used automatically, you look at the mimetypeList section and see what’s there. Using the documentation for your player, you add or remove mime types so that TVersity will deal with your player better. Valid mime types can be found in other sections, since it’s rare for any player to handle everything.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=7973 is for XML Notepad 2007 from Microsoft which is a nice free XML editor, which beats using something like Notepad to edit XML. You can easily see the different player’s sections since they are all separate instances of ‘profile’. Make a backup copy of the profiles.xml in case you need to restore it, then edit it into shape…

#11

Unfortunately, Tversity engineers do still not help people like me that want to improve functioning of the Philips TV. I can’t believe they just did not help us with a tutorial.

Just a tip: Serviio is an alternative streaming media server able to transcode on the fly. I just tried it, and it has a Philips profile. And it works. Bye bye Tversity!

#12

I greatly appreciate every one of the informative read on forums.tversity.com. I most certainly will spread the phrase about your site with people. Cheers. Wish you luck!

#13

I greatly appreciate every one of the informative read on forums.tversity.com. I most certainly will spread the phrase about your site with people. Cheers. Wish you luck!

#14

What’s wrong with this page?

https://github.com/ronenmiz/TVersity/wiki/A-Technical-Specification-of-a-Device-Profile

Cheers,

Dan

#15

If it can play a codec, then add that codec to the mimetypeList in the in-use profile.

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